7 Strategies For Expanding Your Entrepreneurial Mindset
By EMP Staff
In today’s complex business environment where the economic landscape is constantly changing, organizations need to make profound shifts in order to stay competitive. Breaking away from old patterns of operating is essential for enhanced products, improved technologies and new markets to be created. A Deloitte study found that organizations identified as “entrepreneurial” were succeeding at a much faster pace in the market with significantly increased capital investment, higher profit margins and greater productivity among other indicators. Obviously, having an “entrepreneurial mindset” is a key factor in supporting and sustaining the innovation that is critical to generating new business growth.
So what are some things you can do right now to improve your entrepreneurial mindset? Let’s take a look:
- Adopt an experimental attitude, and give yourself incentives for experimentation and risk-taking. Be willing to explore the untested and unknown. Think about specific areas of your job that may benefit from experimentation in the upcoming weeks or months, and develop a plan to make that happen.
- Managing change effectively is a key piece of staying ahead of the curve. To remain competitive, organizations need to be continually changing and adapting. Are you seen as someone who drives important changes without delay? Work at embracing change, and be quick to implement promising ideas.
- Being passionate about what is important to you is a fundamental aspect of the entrepreneurial mindset. Oftentimes, passion can be communicated through motivating others. Think about how you relate to your colleagues: Do you give them challenging assignments that increase their skills? Do you know them on a personal basis? Are you available to help them when needed? Do you celebrate their successes? Do you welcome their input about the projects which are most important to you?
- Always show high levels of ambition, energy, drive, and initiative. When was the last time you really pushed yourself?
- “Anticipating” is a crucial element to this new way of thinking. Anticipating challenges, opportunities, resources, external forces and trends all can help you develop a future orientation that guides your decision-making.
- Be open and upbeat when people first float novel ideas. Sometimes a terrible idea could inspire a great one, so fostering an environment of openness and acceptance creates safety and encourages everyone to think outside of the box.
- Push the standards for quality performance upwards. Always be looking for ways to improve, and establish the mindset that continual change and improvement is the norm for your organization.
The Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile® (EMP) [emindsetprofile.com] is an excellent way to get an in-depth view of the entrepreneurial mindset and see how your personality traits and skill sets compare to those of corporate managers and entrepreneurs. Available online, the EMP provides scores on 14 different scales including Risk Acceptance, Passion, Need to Achieve, Future Focus, Idea Generation and Persistence among others. The EMP Feedback Report comes with a Debrief Video and a comprehensive Development Guide for continuous improvement.
Want to learn more about your own mindset? Visit the TAKE THE EMP webpage and in just 10-15 minutes you can complete this cutting-edge assessment online and receive feedback on your Personality and Skills Scales scores.
EMP Practitioners: To obtain a PDF version of this article, please refer to the EMP Practitioner Dropbox folder which can be reached by clicking EMP Materials from the top menu of the Practitioner Portal dashboard.
